


Ambulance Ride

by Disloyal_Order_Of_Water_Buffaloes



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [3]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Gun Violence, Javid is mentioned, School Shootings, ambulance ride
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:13:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23449090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Disloyal_Order_Of_Water_Buffaloes/pseuds/Disloyal_Order_Of_Water_Buffaloes
Summary: Jack loves his job as a paramedic, even on the hard days.Today was a very hard day.
Relationships: David Jacobs/Jack Kelly
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1666384
Comments: 12
Kudos: 57
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, this is a bit more graphic than my first two, so please please please skip over it if you find this stuff triggering or aren't in the right headspace for it.  
> TW for gun violence, school shooting, graphic depictions of blood and injuries.

**TW: Graphic violence/injuries, school shooting, Gun violence**

* * *

Jack Kelly loved his life as a paramedic. It was hard, yes, and exhausting sometimes, but it was good work. He loved what he did and how he was able to help people.

There were hard calls sometimes. That’s just how it is. Kids being abused and domestic abuse situations were some of his least favorite. They could be pretty intense compared to the person calling about their kid who fell out of a tree and broke their arm. 

Today was one hard call after another. It started with losing a patient on their way to the hospital, another that they got into stable condition suddenly dropping into critical condition as they got closer, and this was their first break in the day to sit down and try to eat something. 

Jack had literally  _ just _ opened his lunch when another call came through. For a second he was relieved when one of his coworkers responded that her and her partner could take it. The operator stated they needed multiple trucks, though, that they were going to need as many people there as possible.

With a heavy sigh (though Jack couldn’t complain. These were real people he was helping, he reminded himself) Jack stuffed the lunch back in his locker and got into the ambulance.

“Where’re we going?” he asked his partner in the truck who was driving.

“Uh,” Albert sighed and started the vehicle up. “Crystalumno Elementary. It’s about seven blocks away.”   


“Elementary?”

Albert just nodded with a frown.

All hands on deck at an elementary school never sounded good.

But there was no time for speculation as they sped the seven blocks and arrived at the school. 

It was a nightmare that Jack had never seen.

Children were walking out of the school with their teacher in front, each child having their hands on the kid in front of them’s shoulders. The people who had beaten Jack and Albert there were already tending to some of the kids lying on the grass where firefighters had laid them for triage.

They didn’t have the chance to even run to a child before one was brought to them and sat on the grass. “9-year-old male, red tag, gunshot wound to the right forearm, not sure how much blood he’s lost. Could be in shock,” she rattled off quickly. Jack nodded as Albert fished for a tourniquet out of his bag. 

Within seconds she was gone and Albert was slipping the tourniquet on the kid’s skinny arm. 

“Alright, kiddo what’s your--”

Jack froze when he made eye contact with the child. Only momentarily, though, they didn’t have time for that.

Leslie Jacobs was breathing far too quickly and shallowly, only stopping for a moment when he choked out a sob at the eye contact of one of the adults he trusted most: Jack Kelly.

Jack was not caring for his boyfriend’s kid brother who just got  _ shot _ .

_ Okay. You can do this. _

“Alright, Les,” Jack said quickly and felt for Les’s pulse. “We’re gonna take care of you, alright? We’re gonna get you to the hospital and call your brother so he’s there with you too, okay?”

Les, unable to say anything as tears rolled down his face, nodded. A second later he cried out, leaning into Jack as much as he could as Albert moved his arm to stabilize it. 

_ Was that bone _ ? Les thought to himself.  _ Is that really  _ my  _ bone? _

“Les, look at me,” Jack said quickly and turned the kid’s head. “Albert’s gonna drive, I’m going to be in back for you and help you out, okay? We gotta move you, though, to get you onto the stretcher. You don’t have to do anything but relax,” he said calmly as Albert finished securing the arm. “We’re both gonna lift you on three. I’ll be up here by your head,” he informed and nodded at his partner.

“1... 2… 3,” Albert counted calmly and lifted.

Jack wished he hadn’t heard Les scream when he was moved. Whether it was from pain of his arm being moved or just  _ terror _ of what was going to happen and what had already happened.

“Alright, Les, I’m gonna give you an IV so I can get you some fluids and medicine to help your pain,” Jack said calmly and began to prep Les’s unhurt arm for an IV. 

“Jack, I need my brother. Where’s David?” he asked through the tears.

“We’re gonna call him once we get to the hospital, okay?” he tried to soothe and flipped the lights on the ambulance on. “Alright, I’m going to poke you and then it’ll be done,” he warned before inserting the IV.

“Jack, I’m so scared, am I gonna die?”

The adult kept working on the IV and sighed. “No, no. We’re gonna make sure you’re okay, Les.”

“Kelly,” Albert called from the front and shook his head. 

That was learned on day one.  _ Don’t make promises you can’t keep. _

“What’s he mean, Jack? Am I gonna die?”

“No, Les. We’re going to help you,” he shot a glare at his partner. “Just--just talk to me, alright? Talk to me while we drive.”

Les took a staggering breath and whined when he couldn’t wipe the tears from his face. Jack did it for him instead. “There was a guy and--and he came in and there was these loud  _ pops _ and they left my friends in the room,” he said shakily. “They--they  _ left _ them. They’re still in there, J,  _ they need to go to the hospital too _ .”

“I know,” Jack held his hand after setting up the bag of fluids. “They’re going to get help too, you just needed to get out first.”

“ _ No _ , they needed to go first,” Les insisted. “They got hurt  _ way  _ worse than me.”

Jack stopped for a moment. Those kids had died.

“Just hang on, we’re almost to the hospital.”

“Is David there?”

“Not yet, we have to wait until we get there.”

“Jack, I don’t want to be alone,” Les cried shakily as the tears picked up again.

“You won’t be,” he reassured, noticing Al shake his head in the driver’s seat. “Just stay calm, kiddo. You’re gonna be okay, just keep breathing,” Jack tried to calm him. “We’re almost there, I promise.”

“I don’t want to be all alone, I don’t want to--”

“Les, I need you to calm down, okay? You won’t be alone, but I  _ need _ you to calm down,” Jack reassured and wiped Les’s tears away. “Al, how long until we’re there?”

“About thirty seconds out,” he said quickly. “Hang in there, Les.”

“It hurts, Jack,” the child groaned. “It hurts and--I see my bone.”

“I know, they’re gonna fix you up at the hospital.”

To be quite honest, Jack wasn’t exactly sure how Les hadn’t passed out yet. Even before they started to try to stop the bleeding, Les lost a  _ lot _ of blood.

Adrenaline is a powerful drug. 

Jack didn’t get a chance to reply before the ambulance doors opened Jack was reciting Les’s vitals and what had happened. The kid still had a death grip on his hand.

Well, as hard as he  _ could _ hold, which wasn’t too hard right now. 

“Leslie? We’re going to take care of you,” a doctor reassured as a nurse took the IV bag from Jack.

“Where’s David?” he asked breathlessly.

“We’re going to contact your family right away, how are you feeling?”

“I need Jack!” he cried as someone tried to pull Jack’s hand away.

“He can’t stay with you.”

“Jack! I need  _ Jack _ ,” he screamed desperately.

“Leslie, we need you to calm--”

“I want Jack,” Les let out a sob as they tried to push him further into the building.

“Jack can’t come in here right now--”

“ _ Jack! _ ” he tried again, but one of the doctors forced their hands apart.

All Jack could do was watch helplessly as Les was taken screaming and crying from him. He needed to go--his clothes had  _ so much _ blood on them. 

Something in him wouldn’t allow him to move, though. Not until Albert pulled him away and back to the ambulance.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's part two!!

  
  


David got the call and was at the hospital in record time. He’d actually ignored the call at first, since he was in class. It was a boring class, but he still paid attention to get a good grade. David tended to live by the “if it’s important, they’ll leave a message” philosophy.

And they left a message. That’s when David gave himself permission to look at the transcript the phone tried to provide. It usually was only accurate about half of the time, but it was worth a shot.

When he saw the words “trying to reach David Jacobs,” “about his brother,” “can’t reveal any more over voicemail,” and “hospital,” he was packing up his things to leave class. As soon as he hit the doors to get outside, he was calling them back. He’d also noticed he had about one million missed calls from Jack.

“Hi, David, can you tell me your brother’s name and date of birth?” someone on the other end of the line asked politely.

“Leslie Jacobs. May 23, 2010.”

“Okay, Mr. Jacobs. Your brother is currently in surgery. We figured you might want to be here when he wakes up--”

“Yeah, yeah. Of course. Have you called our parents yet? Or was I first? I can call them if--”

“David,” the man said softly. “They work here. They’re dealing with patients of their own. We haven’t told them that Leslie is here yet. We just… don’t want to freak them out.”

David hadn’t heard anything past ‘they work here.’ His phone fell to the sidewalk. When he picked it up, the back was shattered, but the screen was okay. He was just shocked.

They  _ did _ work there. His mother was a surgeon and his father was a nurse who usually worked in the adult ICU.

“Um, do you know what injuries he has or what happened or  _ anything _ ?” he begged. Now that he thought of it, it sounded a lot like one of his parents’ coworkers he grew up around: Jason.

“Um--” he started and sighed. “There was a shooting at  Crystalumno Elementary. We’re not sure who the shooter is--or was--or how many kids--”

“ _ Fuck _ ,” he sighed as he entered the subway just as a train was approaching. “Okay, okay. I’m gonna get there as soon as I can. Hopefully before he’s out of surgery.”

“Of course. Just come to the ER reception and we’ll know you. Thanks, David.”

With that, he hung up. Without missing a beat, David dialed Jack’s number.

It went right to voicemail, which meant his phone was off.

He figured he’d listen to Jack’s voicemails as the train began to move.

“Hey, Davey,” one started. Jack sounded  _ awful _ . “I, uh, just got done with a call and I’m leaving you this because I only have as long as it takes for us to get back there. I tried to stay with Les the whole time but they didn’t let me go in very far--it’s a  _ mess _ at his school. It’s fucking bad and I don’t know how many kids are still in there--”

It sounded like he cut himself off and took a breath. “Just go to the hospital. Les’ll be okay, I think, as long as they get some blood in him and stuff. He’s probably in surgery by now or something but just get there quick and be there for him. I can stop by after my shift is over or… whenever we’re done with this. I’ll probably be staying late to help. Just keep me updated on him, okay? You too. Let me know how you’re doing. I’m here for you, I just…don’t know how much I’ll have my phone on. It’ll probably only be on rides back to the school. I love you.”

David slipped the phone into his pocket, quickly wiping his face.

It felt like forever until it was his stop relatively close to the hospital.

* * *

“Hi, I’m David Jacobs, I’m here to see my brother, Leslie,” David said quickly, already getting his ID out to speed up the process.

He could tell it was the person from the phone when he spoke. “Don’t worry about it,” he said softly. “You know how to get to peds, right?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Great. Pediatric intensive care unit, room 14,” he said quickly.

With that, David was off. He practically ran through the hospital to get to the right section and floor, sinding the pastel unit and slowing to a quick walk toward the PICU, near the nurse’s station. Silently, he found the clear door to room 14, an awake Les laying in the bed.

“Hey, kiddo,” he said quietly and sat near the bed. “How’re you feeling?”

“Foggy,” Les groaned.

“You wake up recently?” he asked and held the child’s hand. Les nodded weakly. “Are you in pain?” 

“No, not right now,” he said softly. 

“Right now?”

“It really hurt earlier.”

“What hurt?”

“Arm,” he moved his head slightly toward the injured arm. “‘N head a little.”

“Mr. Jacobs?” a short nurse asked from the doorway. “Can I talk to you out here for a moment?”

“Yeah, I’ll be right back,” he reassured Les, giving him a kiss on the forehead and walking into the hall.

“So Leslie is going to be okay, it’s just going to be a long recovery. I don’t know what kind of bullet he was shot with, but at least two, maybe three, entered his arm and destroyed some of that tissue. It’s going to take a lot of physical therapy and even then he might not get full use of the arm…”

Her words stuck with Davey, he just wasn’t concerned about it right now. Les was alive, out of surgery, that’s what mattered. His parents got off shit in a few hours, so he could tell them. 

When he got back in the room, a doctor came in to give him a little more medicine for pain as he was coming out of his anesthetic haze. 

The minute David grabbed his hand, he began crying quietly.

“Davey, that was so scary…”

“I know,” he said quietly. “I’m so sorry.”

“It was a guy--and I saw some of my friends didn’t get to come out with us,” he said quietly through the tears. “My teacher--Ms. Amy--she didn’t come out with us either.”

David looked away to hide his own tears while Les continued to talk about his experience. It was  _ so hard _ to hear, but if his brother needed it, David would be there.

“David, can you--can you lay with me?” the child hiccuped. “But not on my hurt side,” he added weakly.

And who was David to say no? At that point, Les could have asked for  _ anything _ and David would have done everything possible to make it happen. Plus, he hoped it would calm the poor kid down.

Except he couldn’t calm down. No matter how well Les did for a minute, he’d start back up again until he was sobbing.

Eventually the medical staff noticed and once Les got to the point of not being able to breathe very well, one of the doctors gave him a sedative to let him get some rest. Lord knows freaking out wasn’t helping. And they only had so many social workers on staff at one time to talk to kids.

David never let go of his brother’s hand. By the time their parents rushed up to the room, at that point staying hours past their scheduled shift, both boys were asleep, cuddled into each other.


End file.
